In this episode of One Small Change, Yvonne McCoy welcomes Robbie Samuels, a dynamic entrepreneur who shares how one seemingly insignificant decision—replacing a traditional website contact form with specialized Google Forms—sparked tremendous transformation in both business efficiency and quality of client interactions. This episode dives into the power of small, intentional tweaks to streamline processes, filter for the right clients, and build more meaningful business relationships. Listeners will hear practical strategies about matching with ideal clients, building referral systems, and using technology to support personal strengths, all while staying true to yourself as an entrepreneur.
Guest Bio:
Robbie Samuels is a multi-passionate entrepreneur with experience as a book launch strategist, professional speaker, business coach, podcast host, virtual event designer, and executive Zoom producer. Known for designing impactful systems and sharing actionable insights, our guest helps authors and entrepreneurs launch successful offers, connect with the right clients, and leverage their unique networks for growth.
Chapters:
00:00 One Small Change: Transformation Insights
05:29 Prospect Organization System Setup
08:41 Open Coaching for Aspiring Authors
09:33 Niche Strategy: Value vs. Volume
13:23 "Embrace Three Words"
17:08 "Specializing in Women's Business Strategies"
20:44 "Redefining 'Ideal Client'"
23:56 Effective Book Launch Strategies
28:49 AI Automates Google Form Creation
30:38 "Supercharge Business Through Connection"
Quote from the Guest:
“Show up and offer value. That was all I was trying to do, and that's all I'm still trying to do.”
Links:
Grab your free resources from Robbie Samuels:
Welcome to the One Small Change. As always, I am thrilled
Speaker:that you're taking some time to embark on this journey of exploration and
Speaker:transformation with me. And I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring
Speaker:almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience and a
Speaker:passion for discovering growth through the power of seemingly small change.
Speaker:And I want to thank you for being here this week. And we
Speaker:have an amazing guest who's going to share that an
Speaker:unexpected or insignificant decision that sparked a
Speaker:remarkable transformation and growth in their life. And
Speaker:it may be personal or it may be professional.
Speaker:This week we are talking with Robby Samuels.
Speaker:Robbie, thank you for spending time with us and I cannot
Speaker:wait to hear what you have to say. I have. I wouldn't tell
Speaker:you, Yvonne, so it's a big secret.
Speaker:I have been to your events and your weekly.
Speaker:Your Friday Content Connection club. But I was there
Speaker:before it was coming. No more Bad Zoom Virtual happy hour. Yes, that's what
Speaker:it was. And I have to tell you, this man is really
Speaker:amazing. The stuff that he comes up with and his thought process.
Speaker:So I am not going to keep talking. I am going to let him take
Speaker:it away and tell us. So tell us your story and
Speaker:your, you know, seemingly small change and
Speaker:the impact that it had. So I'll start by
Speaker:saying I'm a multi passionate entrepreneur. I'm a book launch
Speaker:strategist. And I know we'll talk more about that in a little bit. I'm a
Speaker:professional speaker, I'm a podcast host, I am a
Speaker:strategist, I'm a business coach. I'm also a virtual event
Speaker:design consultant and an executive zoom producer. And yes, I do
Speaker:sleep. Here's my one small change.
Speaker:Years ago, I mean, this is probably seven years
Speaker:ago, I removed the contact form from
Speaker:my website because I was just getting
Speaker:so much spam. So much spam. And it was,
Speaker:it was exhausting, annoying, demoralizing
Speaker:because you're like, oh, I got a message. I didn't get a message. And in
Speaker:its place, I have Google Forms
Speaker:and I have Google Forms at the bottom of each of the pages or
Speaker:throughout each of the pages that I describe my services. And I have a contact
Speaker:me page or Contact us page that lists
Speaker:links to all the different Google Forms. And that way
Speaker:if someone is interested in booking me to speak, that's one
Speaker:form. If they're interested in me producing a virtual event, that's another one. If they
Speaker:want to talk about their book launch strategies, it's a different one, et
Speaker:cetera. And this has really changed
Speaker:how people arrive at the call how prepared I am for
Speaker:them and for the people who can't be bothered to fill out the form,
Speaker:then they're also not ready to do the work that I believe they'll
Speaker:have to do. So it's been a little bit of a litmus test,
Speaker:but it goes further than that. But that's the small change.
Speaker:Where it started was removing the contact form and
Speaker:replacing it with Google forms. So
Speaker:you may not have had a thought process when you did
Speaker:that. I mean, you probably said, I'm just doing this because
Speaker:this is irritating and I don't want to be bothered with, you know, these tire
Speaker:kickers. But the bottom line is
Speaker:that the thing that you did started
Speaker:to filtered the people,
Speaker:focus them in the area that they wanted. And
Speaker:so if you were looking at that as, I mean a lot of people will
Speaker:look at that and go, oh my God, I'm turning all these people away.
Speaker:But that's not really true, is it? Oh, not at all.
Speaker:I recently had the most awkward
Speaker:prospect call I've had in a really long time.
Speaker:It was a big not fit, you know, like something was
Speaker:off. And I earlier that day and later that day
Speaker:had great calls. So. So of course I'm trying to figure out like, what was
Speaker:the difference? Well, this person somehow got on my calendar and
Speaker:skipped filling out a form. And
Speaker:I now schedule calls. I mean, I do these 30 minute calls for
Speaker:like lots of services. But mainly right now I'm meeting with a lot of
Speaker:authors or writers about their books. And the
Speaker:more they come into that call having thought a little bit about
Speaker:why they wrote the book and their intended outcomes and strategies and goals,
Speaker:et cetera, the better we will have a good experience. I've even went and
Speaker:wrote an entire book about my book launch strategies. And if they have read that
Speaker:book or skimmed it before getting on the call, they're even more informed
Speaker:and we can dive into their unique situation. So when that happens,
Speaker:it's an incredible conversation and it's really, really helpful for them and I get
Speaker:clarity for them, et cetera. Part of it is that they
Speaker:go to a landing page or, or page on my website and they read about
Speaker:what I do. I'm also very transparent about price. So that was part
Speaker:of the. I don't want people showing up thinking they're going to pay $50 for
Speaker:a Zoom producer when it's $1,500. Right. I can't have
Speaker:that mismatch keep happening. And when people follow my process,
Speaker:it really, really works. So it also keeps me organized. So
Speaker:instead of having lots of inquiries. I now have a fathom that
Speaker:records these calls. So, so at the end of the call, I go to that
Speaker:spreadsheet tied to that Google form. I jot down a few keynotes
Speaker:and I grab the Fathom link and I drop it into the spreadsheet and
Speaker:I can mark them as a weak prospect, strong prospect, yay
Speaker:or nay. And when I'm ready to review my
Speaker:prospects, I can organize them by weak prospect or strong prospect and do
Speaker:my follow up. If I don't remember the details, I can look back at their
Speaker:answers that they had given to me about their book. I can
Speaker:look at the Fathom summary and that will usually be enough. I could also
Speaker:watch a moment of the video and then seeing them often clicks in place.
Speaker:So I could have a dozen conversations at any week.
Speaker:And so it could get very jumbled in my brain if I didn't have a
Speaker:system. So this system, in a way, got set up because of that
Speaker:one small change I made seven, almost eight years ago.
Speaker:Removing the contact form and replacing it with a Google
Speaker:form, well before this particular offer was even a twinkle in
Speaker:my eye. All right, well, what, what I want to do, if you don't mind,
Speaker:is I want us to take a step back from the
Speaker:actual system and all the techy parts of it,
Speaker:because, you know, I'm not very techy and I want to talk
Speaker:about the kind of the philosophy and
Speaker:as entrepreneurs, what this means. So
Speaker:a couple of ideas came up and I want your comment about that.
Speaker:So the first thing is I think most of us had the limiting
Speaker:belief of that there is a scarce amount
Speaker:of clients. And so we want to talk to everybody.
Speaker:There are some real downsides to that. So can you talk
Speaker:about that a little bit? Yeah, I actually
Speaker:tested this last year. So I was piloting a
Speaker:lot of ideas last year as I was building Biz Book Pub Hub, which is
Speaker:this resource ecosystem I developed. It's a mix of a curated
Speaker:directory of experts who support entrepreneurial authors, author
Speaker:events, speaker events,
Speaker:podcast. A lot of good things there. But we were sort of piloting all these
Speaker:ideas and I was booking calls with people who were on to join
Speaker:the expert network. And I was also having calls with writers and authors.
Speaker:And so I didn't make any money in Q1 of last year.
Speaker:I probably met with 20 people a week.
Speaker:And it was a lot to get it booked and to keep track
Speaker:of it and to just understand like what, what I was trying to get out
Speaker:of all those calls. It was deep research in a way. And
Speaker:because I did all that work, I was able to then refine who I would
Speaker:really like to meet with. So I recently spoke for a writing
Speaker:group in California that works with 50%
Speaker:business type authors, like people writing nonfiction books related
Speaker:to their business and 50% fictional authors.
Speaker:And after I did my presentation and I offered to book a call for 30
Speaker:minutes, I had fiction authors booking with me.
Speaker:And I did about three of those calls before I was
Speaker:like, I have to put something on my website that explains who I am here
Speaker:for because I have enough free content for them to get
Speaker:the lessons without meeting with me. Like, if they want to just generally understand.
Speaker:This is before I even had a book. There was podcast content and things I'd
Speaker:posted online and blogs, et cetera. So I had to start putting some
Speaker:boundaries up. And yet I didn't want to close it off
Speaker:to only people who had a book at a certain stage.
Speaker:Because I've learned that my best coaching
Speaker:prospects are people who are starting to work on a book
Speaker:or are further along in the book. But they want to make sure the book
Speaker:has a new revenue stream tied to it and they don't feel confident that they
Speaker:already have that lined up that they now the book is going to happen. They're
Speaker:now thinking about the next step. So I want to be open to
Speaker:those kinds of conversations, exploring those, because that becomes another
Speaker:opportunity for a different revenue stream. So I don't like,
Speaker:oh, you have to have a book and has to be, you know, I don't
Speaker:want to like too constrained, but I also know it has to be people who
Speaker:could potentially work with me. And who, who is
Speaker:that and who is that not. And that, that is
Speaker:a matter of kind of, you know, the concept of being a, you know,
Speaker:a bigger fish in a small pond versus being a small fish in a
Speaker:huge pond. I mean, the time that you
Speaker:spend talking with people who are not a right fit
Speaker:is draining for you and it's also not productive for them
Speaker:either. I mean, you're actually doing them a service. And,
Speaker:and I think that people, you know, when you have the right
Speaker:client and they value you, then
Speaker:they are not looking for you to discount their services.
Speaker:Right. And so that brings us to the price thing. It, it is
Speaker:not a good idea to make your, I mean, it's kind of
Speaker:like probably the easiest way I heard somebody explain is you have to decide
Speaker:are you going to be like, like a Walmart or, you know, or
Speaker:a Kmart and be a volume person or
Speaker:are you going to be a high class Like Nordstrom and be a high
Speaker:ticket person, you know, and that was like, oh,
Speaker:that's interesting. I mean, there is actually enough
Speaker:business for everybody if you're
Speaker:specific. And probably one of the most empowering things
Speaker:that, that ever happened to me was when I can
Speaker:say to somebody, here's, you know, a couple ideas that come
Speaker:to my head. But we really are not a good fit.
Speaker:Right. That's partly why I built a referral network too.
Speaker:Because when you feel confident about who you can send those folks to
Speaker:and that they'll get the support they need, then you're less likely to take them
Speaker:on. I want to be really clear about what I'm focused on. And
Speaker:I'm not helping you as a writing coach. I'm not a developmental editor. I'm
Speaker:not publishing your content. I'm not doing your social media
Speaker:marketing. I'm doing the launch. And it has really
Speaker:specific outcomes and it's for a particular purpose. And it will be most
Speaker:beneficial to a certain type of authority who has a business
Speaker:speaking, coaching or consulting. So them knowing
Speaker:all that coming in. In fact, you know,
Speaker:now it's all happening where people are getting referred
Speaker:to. Me going to book launch brainstorm.com
Speaker:seeing my note at the top saying, before we meet, I recommend you read my
Speaker:book and download my, my bonus content, which you can actually
Speaker:download whether you get the book or not. And they do that. And
Speaker:I had a woman get on a call the other day who had already put
Speaker:together a list of people invite to her launch team of over
Speaker:500. Oh my God. She had, in the two
Speaker:weeks, while waiting for the meeting to happen, started the
Speaker:process based on what she read in my book. And it, I'm
Speaker:really glad she did because her turnaround time was really close. Like she's like, I
Speaker:have this event in October. I want to have the book out for this event.
Speaker:And so we, we were able to build a timeline that met her
Speaker:tight turnaround because she came into the process
Speaker:like really clear, this is a solution I want, I've already done
Speaker:work to validate that it would work for me. Robbie's the right person.
Speaker:I trust his process. And she saw my price and she was like,
Speaker:oh yeah, I remember your price. It was reasonable. And her only question was whether
Speaker:to hire my implementation team or to do it with
Speaker:her team. And I really strongly emphasize you should if
Speaker:you have a team member to do it. Like I'll, I can train them up.
Speaker:Like it's a good skill to have. And she thought about it and was like,
Speaker:nope. I actually want you to do it. And so like that was the
Speaker:only question in her mind. And then suddenly she's buying the
Speaker:entire package for me, including a 90 minute
Speaker:coaching session to help develop the new offer.
Speaker:So it was the book launch, the full book launch package plus a coaching
Speaker:package. And it she sold herself, you know,
Speaker:like that I didn't do anything except degree. So
Speaker:again, I'm going to go back kind of to the non techie kind
Speaker:of way we can do this. And one of the ways, you know, that I
Speaker:talk about is being yourself, you know, and
Speaker:you know, for me it's really funny because
Speaker:I have this thing that I do in my workshop that you come up with
Speaker:three words so you don't have to write a mission statement and a vision statement,
Speaker:all that kind of stuff. You come up with three words about the way you
Speaker:want to be. My three words are
Speaker:energetic, adventuresome and curio. Cur, you know, curious.
Speaker:Okay. And so what I have found since I've started
Speaker:putting that into, I mean I actually a different version of those
Speaker:three words I actually used to lose over
Speaker:£150. So since I've been
Speaker:using it on my business, I'm finding that the
Speaker:people that I get on calls with now say to me, I love your
Speaker:energy. Which means the people that don't love my energy are not
Speaker:calling, you know, which is good because it
Speaker:means, you know, I'm connecting with the right people. And the last
Speaker:call, you know, the last couple calls I've had, I'm like, you know, this
Speaker:is wonderful, this is great. What, what can I do for you? And she's like,
Speaker:I'm interested in working with you. Let's talk about that. And I'm like, okay, good.
Speaker:I'm, I'm good with that. You know, so it really
Speaker:does, when you put that filter, it really makes a
Speaker:difference in terms of
Speaker:who comes into your world and the people who come in are better
Speaker:qualified and more in touch with what you
Speaker:want to do. And you're not under, you know, you're not over delivering and
Speaker:underpricing. Right, Right. So you're happy
Speaker:too, right? 100%. I think
Speaker:when I think back to the moment where we had a mismatch call the other
Speaker:day, she came in wanting to inquire about me hosting,
Speaker:designing and hosting her book launch party because she had sort of read about that
Speaker:in my book, but she was asking about it in a like
Speaker:divorce from the rest of the process. So I was like, okay, but first,
Speaker:can I ask you some questions about the rest of the process. And I poked
Speaker:some holes in her plans and she was
Speaker:smiling through her teeth. She was not
Speaker:pleased with my line of inquiry.
Speaker:And even at one point was like, I have a business coach. And I'm
Speaker:like, yeah, but I mean, so finally she's like, I want to know about your,
Speaker:your party. And I tell her about it. And she goes, no, but I wanna
Speaker:know the price. I'm like, oh, it's on my website. It's fifteen hundred dollars.
Speaker:And she, she was like, you're being, we're having this really inefficient
Speaker:call. I thought we would click and we're not. And I said, well, you could
Speaker:spend a lot less than $1500 if you just want someone to manage your chat.
Speaker:Like, that's not why you're hiring me. And that's where it's energy.
Speaker:Like, the clients that want to work with me love the fact that I can't
Speaker:help but teach them something like, you can't hire me for one
Speaker:thing. I am a multi passionate entrepreneur. I bring all the tools in the
Speaker:toolbox. And those who appreciate that. I have
Speaker:nonprofit leaders who are not entrepreneurs but are
Speaker:very entrepreneurial who end up leaning into a lot of my entrepreneurial skill
Speaker:sets to figure out how to run their nonprofits. And so we're talking about
Speaker:their fundraising event and I'm helping think about marketing,
Speaker:right? And they're like leaning into what I've learned. And so
Speaker:that's, that enhances why they wanna work with me now. It detracts.
Speaker:So it's just very like, be who you are. It's also why I have one
Speaker:website for everything. I don't have 17 brands.
Speaker:I have one website. I have a very clear audience for everything I
Speaker:sell. There's some overlap between some of those audiences,
Speaker:but it's one place because it's me. You hire me and you happen
Speaker:to get all the tools in my toolbox. Everything, right?
Speaker:It's, it's interesting because, you know, somebody, one
Speaker:time somebody said, why do you say women's business strategists?
Speaker:And I say, because I enjoy working with women. That
Speaker:doesn't mean that I won't work with a man. If there, if
Speaker:we have rapport, you know, but
Speaker:it's also, you know, I also work with couples. If it comes up, you
Speaker:know, for you've got a business and it's a couple, you'll do that. But you
Speaker:have to have one, you know, at least one thing that people can know you
Speaker:for and find you. Which doesn't mean that you don't give them
Speaker:everything, you know, I mean, it's, It's. I was telling you
Speaker:that when I used to coach executive women, one
Speaker:of the weird things that they liked about me, besides the fact that I made
Speaker:them calm, is I had good mom advice.
Speaker:And I used to say I went to Wharton for this. But, you know,
Speaker:but my. My actual, you know, power is coming up
Speaker:with systems that work whether they're technical or not.
Speaker:And so, you know, I mean, one of the systems that I came up with,
Speaker:my son, who would never get dressed in the morning and just
Speaker:drove me crazy, was on Saturday we would, you know, put
Speaker:seven out, you know, six outfits together, underwear, socks,
Speaker:tops, bottoms, the whole bit. And in the morning, he could pick the one
Speaker:that he wanted. I didn't have to, like, you know, it wasn't me, you know,
Speaker:and by the end of the week, he had changed things around so that he
Speaker:was wearing plaids and stripes. And then I learned to buy solid colors.
Speaker:That's funny. But I didn't have that problem anymore. And
Speaker:they were like, this is a great system, you know, and it was.
Speaker:But go ahead. I want to just jump in. That thing you said earlier
Speaker:about how you're a women's business strategist.
Speaker:When I was really focused on talking about my book, sorry, my business
Speaker:coaching, my business growth strategy coaching offer. I
Speaker:always define that. I tend. I always say I tend to
Speaker:work with. Which even that phrasing, right, that leaves open
Speaker:that there might be some edges around this. I tend to work with
Speaker:entrepreneurial women in their 50s and beyond who are looking to grow
Speaker:their impact to income through some kind of new revenue stream.
Speaker:And then I say, well, and parenthetically, a few good men.
Speaker:And there's always kind of a laugh about it. But I say the kind
Speaker:of guys that are attracted to the way I talk about the work
Speaker:that I do are the kind of guys that can hang out in a room
Speaker:full of women comfortably. And they're the kind of guys I'd
Speaker:want to hang out with, because I'm usually the guy in a room full of
Speaker:women. And if you're that kind of guy that can also hang there, like, that's
Speaker:the kind of person I'd want to work with. But it's
Speaker:interesting how some people will think that's too closed off.
Speaker:And I'm like, I can't be for everyone. Like, there's a reason
Speaker:it's not 30 year olds, you know, And I. And I can
Speaker:explain it. I can. I have a reason now. When you first, get started. You
Speaker:don't. I actually use the term likely prospect instead of the term
Speaker:ideal client when I'm working with people if they don't have a
Speaker:proven offer. Because I know when I was getting started, I
Speaker:did not like any of these questions on all these, you know, you buy these,
Speaker:like, programs and the first modules, like, describe your ideal client. And I
Speaker:feel like I was just making things up, you know, Starbucks or Dunkin
Speaker:podcasts or audiobooks. Do they listen in the shower, in the car? I'm like, I
Speaker:don't know. And now I do know because I've actually
Speaker:worked with these people. But back then, if we just said, well, who's your
Speaker:likely prospect? I probably would have had a lot more freedom to start thinking
Speaker:about who in my community could be that person. I want to throw something in
Speaker:because this is like my number one pet peeve is that,
Speaker:first of all, you know, my story is that I was in a
Speaker:$25,000 a year program, and at the end of that year, I did not know
Speaker:who my ideal client was, because I could. They didn't fit in into a box,
Speaker:right? And so, you know, I don't call
Speaker:it ideal client. I call it your right client. And what I say is,
Speaker:I work, you know, I work with entrepreneurial women and
Speaker:enlightened men, you know, and. And the other
Speaker:thing is, I did. I. I did my, my lead
Speaker:generator, and I started it with
Speaker:the first thing. I started it with who are the people whose needs you're
Speaker:fulfilling, who love you, and what are the things that they got
Speaker:unexpectedly? Because if you start with who's your right client
Speaker:or who's your ideal client, you're stuck. And you never
Speaker:go. And you, you can never go any further. So I reverse engineered
Speaker:it. You know, the clients that you have are the people you know, whether they
Speaker:paid you or not, that you liked working with. And then you can
Speaker:go backwards and, and backfill, you know, the
Speaker:stuff that, you know, the stuff that you're doing. Oh, my God, we could talk
Speaker:about this forever. I have one more thing then. Let's, let's. If we can
Speaker:include this before we change topics. I like to
Speaker:ask people, if I was talking with someone and realized
Speaker:that I should introduce them to you, what is that person complaining about,
Speaker:talking about, challenged by? And that
Speaker:changes the conversation because now we're looking at what phrases, what
Speaker:language, what emotion, what situations are they in the middle of?
Speaker:My brain also can then more likely latch onto whether
Speaker:I know those kinds of people better than if they
Speaker:described like Some demographic even, because even 50
Speaker:year old entrepreneurial woman is not specific enough to like what
Speaker:would cause you to want to introduce them to me? It's because of something that's
Speaker:happening. So that's been my like
Speaker:workaround. So I went on a 30
Speaker:minute phone call and she said to me, what situation are your clients
Speaker:in? And I was like, oh my God, they're all trying to scale
Speaker:their business. They're spending too much time in the weeds and not
Speaker:don't have a strategy to get into the bigger picture of what they want. I
Speaker:mean, it was like magic, you know? All right, great question. It's
Speaker:why coaches need coaches. So
Speaker:before we run out of time, let's make sure people know what the free, the
Speaker:free gift is you have and the three or whatever
Speaker:number you've got. Actionable steps that you think people should take away from
Speaker:this. So I wrote four books and one of them
Speaker:is called small list big results. Launch a successful offer.
Speaker:No matter the size your email list. The basic premise is no matter how
Speaker:big or small the email list is, and we always want it to
Speaker:be bigger, your network is bigger.
Speaker:Okay. And that concept is also the basis
Speaker:of the fourth book, which is launch your book an entrepreneur's
Speaker:guide to reviews that drive revenue. The idea is that you lean into your existing
Speaker:network. So I'm going to recommend that people go to
Speaker:smallestbigresults.com and download the bonus content.
Speaker:If they don't have a book that will really help them thinking about
Speaker:how to identify people in their existing
Speaker:network that are likely prospects, referral partners,
Speaker:or general supporters. If they have a book or are thinking about a
Speaker:book, then similar concept, but more very specifically
Speaker:focused on the launch. Then if you go to booklaunchbrainstorm.com,
Speaker:you'll get the book and you can just jump in and get that bonus content.
Speaker:With or without buying the book. You can always get my bonus content.
Speaker:And I'm just challenging people that if you're going to build a new offer,
Speaker:do not just build it in secret
Speaker:and then tinker with it and go bring it out into the world
Speaker:and expect people to buy it. Do not go to people to do quote unquote
Speaker:research calls where the only question is, now that I've spent
Speaker:25 minutes describing this thing that I poured a ton of effort into, do you
Speaker:think you should have a blue button or a green button? Because you're answers
Speaker:to that question will not tell you whether people are going to buy from you.
Speaker:So do research calls before you develop it
Speaker:before you have tried to figure it out. And also stop trying to put things
Speaker:on your website before you've sold it. Just no one, those initial
Speaker:like half dozen dozen people who are going to buy from you are going to
Speaker:buy from you. You don't even know what it's called yet. You
Speaker:don't have to know exactly how many sessions like they're going to buy because they
Speaker:helped create it. And that's what a good research call can do. So if
Speaker:you have a really clear sense, my, my process is called wake
Speaker:up your network and it helps you figure out
Speaker:the first first part of this is a two part question. Would they remember
Speaker:my name and would I be happy to hear from them out of the blue?
Speaker:So Yvonne, you remember my name and I reached out of the blue you'd be
Speaker:happy to hear from me. So you know, if you saw my name you're like
Speaker:okay, yes Robbie, then the question is connection.
Speaker:My influence and my interests. So how
Speaker:strong of a connection do we have? What kind of influence do I have in
Speaker:the context of whatever it is you are doing and how interested might I be
Speaker:in that topic? And based on the answer to those questions, you can either decide
Speaker:that I'm a likely prospect, a referral partner, or
Speaker:some people are general supporters and some people just don't fit and that's fine too.
Speaker:But it's not fun work. I can't tell you it's going to be the best.
Speaker:But if you do it and it's like and as little as a weekend, you'll
Speaker:end up with hundreds of names on a list. And if you really go through
Speaker:that list over the next 612 months, all kinds of new
Speaker:revenue and media opportunities will come from that curated,
Speaker:thoughtfully put together list. Depending on where
Speaker:you are in your business, whether it's research calls, sales calls, launch team,
Speaker:but that's the group of people that you need to figure out. You do not
Speaker:need thousands of people following you to be effective.
Speaker:You need just a few hundred who understand who you are, what you do and
Speaker:they'll remember you when they're thinking about that. It's like who knows what
Speaker:you know and will they remember you when they need it? So I don't know
Speaker:how many of those were, but those are the things that I would tell people
Speaker:to do. And that goes right into what
Speaker:I just said is, you know, you need to be found and
Speaker:everything that you do
Speaker:needs to kind of go into that focus, focus on that, you know, and,
Speaker:and I the through line for. My business
Speaker:because I am A multi passionate entrepreneur. I had some really good
Speaker:fortune of sitting with Tamsen Webster, who's an incredible
Speaker:messaging strategist. And I've known her a long time, so she's seen
Speaker:my business evolve and she said, what's basically, what's the through line?
Speaker:And I said, I don't know if I like the answer I have for you
Speaker:because you're you. And I don't really suddenly I don't feel good about my
Speaker:answer. And she looked at me and went, be seen and be heard. And
Speaker:I'm like, what? She's like, everything you do, whether it's virtual
Speaker:events, you help speakers be seen to be heard. If you're organizing
Speaker:a book launch, you're helping authors be seen to be heard. If you're working with
Speaker:a client who's got a new offer, you're helping them be seen to be heard.
Speaker:Like people going to a conference and they're learning how to network because the
Speaker:tools you've given them, you're helping them be seen and be heard. Like, that's what
Speaker:I do. The medium changes, the modality changes.
Speaker:But ultimately that's discovery. Being
Speaker:discovered is really important. I'm going to say this one other thing because
Speaker:we, we gotta wrap it up. It's
Speaker:interesting. I went back and looked at some of the stuff
Speaker:from like 15 years ago and I
Speaker:was like, this is so good,
Speaker:that's great. This is exactly where I am now. But I
Speaker:let people, you know, I listened to people and I was like, okay, well we'll
Speaker:massage it, we'll do this, we'll do. And I'm like, man, if
Speaker:I'd stuck with that, I would have been, you know, because I jokingly say I'm
Speaker:a 30 year overnight success. But anyway, okay, so here's
Speaker:the, here's the, you know, the, the surprise question. When was the last time
Speaker:you did something new for the first time?
Speaker:So AI has evolved and I tend to
Speaker:only like to learn technology to serve a purpose and not just
Speaker:to learn it. And I needed to create some new Google
Speaker:forms and I was asking ChatGPT for
Speaker:some questions and some like context to put in the top
Speaker:description. And then I thought, can you help me create this?
Speaker:Like, what is a way that you can help me? Like what's, what's the way
Speaker:this can be created? And it gave me like five options and one of them
Speaker:was to create a script. And then it showed me like how I can go
Speaker:to a special Google website and upload the script that it created for me.
Speaker:And lo and behold, Ivan. I did the thing and
Speaker:I pressed, you know, run, and the. The whole form
Speaker:got created with all the questions and I just had to go
Speaker:in and, like, make minor tweaks, like, so even the, like,
Speaker:effort of copying and pasting and choosing whether it's a drop
Speaker:down or whether it's a short answer, a lot. Like, all that was done.
Speaker:All that was done. It was incredible. So not only did it give me great
Speaker:questions, we had a bit of a back and forth about what the purpose of
Speaker:the form was, but now I know that
Speaker:I probably could be creating scripts for other things. Like, it's just. It's just open,
Speaker:just like unlocked a part of my brain I just didn't know was there.
Speaker:That's great. I mean, I said. I said. I said, one day
Speaker:I cut and paste this, you know, from this Google form, put in chat GPT,
Speaker:and I said, can you generate this thing for my newsletter? And it was
Speaker:like, yeah. And it did it. And I was like, if I had a better
Speaker:form, what would it be? And it said, this is what I would add
Speaker:to this. Do you want me to create it? I'm like, yes, please.
Speaker:I love systems like that. Oh, that's a whole.
Speaker:That's a whole nother podcast. Yeah, we gotta go. Thank
Speaker:you. As the first step, I hope that you will subscribe, share
Speaker:and engage this podcast on social media. And,
Speaker:you know, the whole purpose of the podcast is to help you to supercharge your
Speaker:business through connection and bring people into your community
Speaker:that you may not have thought of. It's my way of giving back
Speaker:and exposing people who have been helpful in my
Speaker:journey. So I hope you will join me again for the one small change
Speaker:and look at how a tiny shift can really
Speaker:yield a huge impact. And if you haven't done it yet, you might
Speaker:want to listen to the first episode just to see what I was
Speaker:thinking about in terms of trying to
Speaker:step into boldness and innovative possibilities. Before
Speaker:we go, Robbie, do you have any last words or any favorite quotes you'd like
Speaker:to share? There was a mantra that I used a lot in
Speaker:2020 that helped me move forward in very tumultuous,
Speaker:turbulent times, and that is show up and offer value. That was all I
Speaker:was trying to do, and that's all I'm still trying to do. Show up and
Speaker:offer value. Fantastic. Okay, everybody,
Speaker:remember, change is simple, but it's not always easy. It requires
Speaker:courage, resilience, and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone.
Speaker:So, again, join me for the one small change as we embark on this. This
Speaker:journey with a bold vision and innovation. And until then,
Speaker:stay curious. Thank you, Robbie. Thank you.
Speaker:Bye.